It’s Either/Or Situation at Tailback

Eric Ball might do well to remind the UCLA football coaches of the old saying: “You’re only as good as your last game.”

Ball’s last game would rate him as pretty high.

It was the 1986 Rose Bowl game, UCLA’s upset of Iowa, and Ball rushed for 227 yards and 4 touchdowns.

Instead, Ball is saying: “That was just one game. You’ve got to be consistent to earn a starting spot.”

Last season, as a redshirt freshman, Ball led the team with an average of 5.8 yards a carry and finished just nine yards behind Gaston Green, the team leader, in net yards gained.

Ball also led the team with 11 touchdowns.

But he still hasn’t earned that starting spot. He wrapped up spring practice Saturday with the same status that he had gone in with--an either-or starter. The depth chart lists the tailback as Gaston Green or Eric Ball.

“Things were so even during spring, too, that now they’re getting to the nit-picking stuff,” Ball said. “It’s coming down to who has watched the most film, who hasn’t missed running, that kind of stuff.

“Toward the end of last season, they were looking at average yards per carry to see who would start the next game. I thought that was fair. We know we’re both going to play.”

And Ball knew when he signed with UCLA, as an All-American from Ypsilanti, Mich., that he was in for four years of competition with Green, an All-American from Gardena who had committed to the Bruins two weeks earlier.

“You never know how things are going to go, though,” Ball said. “Sometimes you get there and you’re not as good as you thought you were, or the other guys aren’t as good as you thought they’d be. Here, it’s just what we were all expecting. Gaston Green is serious competition.”

This will probably go on for two more seasons. At least the four-year competition was cut down to three when Ball red-shirted his freshman year because of an injury. Next fall, he’ll be listed as a sophomore with Green as a junior.

UCLA Coach Terry Donahue has said that it really doesn’t matter much to him who starts at tailback. Not when he’s going to have both of them--as well as junior James Primus--pitching in.

“But I know that it matters to the players,” Donahue said. “It doesn’t matter once we get into the game, but I realize that it’s important for the recognition and prestige. Everybody wants to start.”

Come to think of it, Ball didn’t even start the Rose Bowl game. That didn’t bother him much once the game was under way.

He was so impressive in that game that the proud town of Ypsilanti officially honored him.

“Oh, no! How did you find out about that?” Ball cried. “If the team finds out, I’ll never hear the end of it.

“After the game they were all teasing me about being from a small town and saying that when I went home there would probably be parades and the mayor would come out to meet me and all that.

“I’ll never live this down.”

Especially because the city of Ypsilanti went all out. The city fathers didn’t proclaim Eric Ball Day, but they did proclaim Eric Ball Month.

“I was only home for three or four days, but, boy, did they keep me busy,” he said. “It was nice, but I was kind of embarrassed. I walked into my sister’s high school volleyball game and everybody started cheering.

“I told my roommate (Darryl Henley) he had to keep it quiet. I took enough grief just from him.”

It’s the price of fame. One game can do that.

But one game can’t make you a starter at UCLA.